How I got banned from GiftCardmall

Introduction

Man, I should have posted this yesterday while I was mentioned on Reddit. My timing is just a tad bit off. Anyway, I’m sure lots of you MS’ers are banned from GiftCardMall like myself. I figure I tell you my story and if we can collectively figure out a way to get unbanned, that’d be great. The reason why this ban hurts so much is because of the current deal with the Five Back cards.

My history with Giftcardmall

I was happily buying $3,000 of gift cards about once or twice a week, racking up serious TYP while doing it. Then one day, I noticed I hadn’t received an order that was almost 3 weeks old. I did some research and found out that the package got returned back to GCM and they refunded me $3000 but kept the fees (I guess that wasn’t a horrible compromise) since it would have cost me liquidation fees to turn that into $3000 cash anyway. After that, every time I try to place an order, I get this error:

This transaction was not completed. The transaction was not submitted correctly, or has been declined by your card issuer. You can try again with a different card or review your payment information for any necessary corrections.

That’s when you know it’s a hard ban. Even trying new credit cards don’t work. I have a feeling it’s an address and credit card ban (maybe even a combination of name and zip ban t00.) I haven’t been able to get around it.

Other people’s bans

I’m not the only person who have been banned. I know over a dozen other people who are banned from them, without even doing something as egregious as my returned gift cards. No one has figured out a way to get unbanned. Calling them leads nowhere. Emailing them leads nowhere. I don’t think this is CFPB worthy since they’re not harming you.

Lessons Learned

Eh, cross your fingers you don’t get banned from GCM? I’d tell you slow and steady, but that could get you banned too. It’s a mystery I tell ya.

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Man this is rough. One 5k order in Dec went through. Second order back in December was in limbo for a month. CC charged but never got the card. Called them mid Jan and they said sorry 500 five backs don’t exist anymore we gotta refund you. That’s fine. But ever since then have been getting that same damn message. Also my sister today tried to order for the first time ever on gcm and got the same message wtfff. I’ve tried vpn, diff address, diff name, diff card…..have you figured out the workaround?? Or was that previous commenter just being a bitch azz troll

Miles per Day

Nope I’m still banned. I hear ppl will try 1 order months down the road and MAYBE it ships so maybe it’s not a permanent ban, but ymmv.

shar

Blehh. Ok thanks

DrRyan_L

Will anyone share which cards to order? I finally got an order to go through, but the cards wont work at Kroger or Walmart even though my name is on them. Any suggestions?

Mike

I got banned on very 1st order months ago. So slow and steady is as much a loser as any other approach.

Miles per Day

Oh man that’s rough.

nini

I got that weird message the second time (only bought $1k or 1.5k the first time). Called them but they couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me what’s wrong. Later i found out my credit company sent me a message asking me to verify but i didn’t get the message until too late. After my cc lifted the block i tried again but still the same message. And ever since then i can never place an order even with a different cc.

SJ0.travelinmiles

That would have been a lot of TYP had you been allowed to keep doing this.

dfuc

I’ve gotten that message since May 2015 after an order got cancelled for an unknown reason and customer service can’t tell why. I never got close to $15k a month. I change my credit card billing address and shipping address, created new GCM accounts and tried many other credit cards and still get that m3ssage.

I’ve been getting that message for months. Using incognito makes the order go through, but it’s usually rejected by their “second level” team.

Miles per Day

Hey at least you got that far…

Ken

I tried to place a $1k order for the 5back cards a few days ago and the first time I got that same declined message. Then an email from my bank. Tried another card and it went through. I haven’t ordered from GCM in over a year and even then it was for a merchant GC.

Skor

Which bank / issuer CC worked specifically? I tried different CCs from the one I had used in the past but it still didnt work.

Ken

Arrival+

disqus_l7GXsYbTLi

I ordered a total of about $4000 of VGC over a 2 year period, now I can’t sign in or register a new account, even using new physical addresses and IPs.

Miles per Day

Ooooph rough. I wonder how they are tracking you then.

disqus_l7GXsYbTLi

probably my name

Miles per Day

Sucks for ppl with same name as you. Others have tried diff name (see other comments) and still no go. Their detection system is on point.

glngarryglnross

Thats not being banned FYI. It happens to us all. You just have to find the workaround

Miles per Day

Care to shed light on the workaround?

glngarryglnross

i dont but you arent banned. GCM sucks in many ways. CS is nonexistant.

dan

saw a few posts that change of browsers did help, but hasn’t worked for me on either chrome, firefox nor edge; if anyone knows a workaround or to make it work, appreciate a tips here

king

My orders were cancelled from very first. Then i ordered simon mall cards processed by gcm. It went through. Then even those orders were started getting cancelled . For all the orders i used att. Then i moved to different location . Created a new id , but didnt made any order for 2 months. Then made the first order . It went through . From that time onwards steadily ordering around 10 k per month.